Up to 15,000 immigrants are sneaking into Britain a year through Calais, the French town’s deputy mayor has claimed.

Philippe Mignonet, who is also the port’s immigration chief, went public with the estimate because he said Calais was becoming a ‘magnet for illegal immigrants', with hundreds of foreigners sleeping rough there before stowing away aboard lorries and ferries.

‘According to our estimations, depending on the night, between 10, 20, even 40 are getting through,’ he said.

The official's criticism of Britain came just days after French Interior Minister Manuel Valls called on the UK to change its immigration policy because of the pressure that Calais was under.

Straight-talking: Calais deputy mayor Philippe Mignonet says the border should be taken to the UK so France doesn't have to deal with it

Mr Mignonet said: ‘The ease with
which illegal immigrants can work on the black market in Britain,
coupled with the fact that migrants’ family members can more easily join
them, means that Britain is a magnet for illegal immigrants.’

It is far harder for newcomers to
claim benefits or get jobs in France, where the socialist government
regularly deports migrants, and destroys their illegal encampments.

The UK Border Force shares
responsibility with the French for patrolling Calais, but Mr Mignonet
says the main controls should be transferred to the south coast of
England to deal with what is principally ‘a British problem’.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

He told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The quickest, most radical
and easiest solution would be simply to shift the border from Calais to
Dover and Folkestone and then the problem wouldn’t be handled in France
but Britain.’

Mr Mignonet attacked ‘hypocritical’
Britain for talking tough on immigration, but then allowing hundreds of
thousands to stay, and said if this continued, France
would just ‘let them through’.

He said Britain needed to do more to halt the tide of migrants heading there through Calais, and said Britain had a 'hypocritical' attitude, talking tough but doing little to actively discourage illegal immigrants.

The deputy mayor also said that hundreds tried to slip through the border every night, with several of them evading border staff successfully, despite officers' best attempts.

Pressure: The former dockers social club in Place de Norvege, Calais, France, has been turned into accommodation for migrants

Slipping through: M. Mignonet said that despite border officers' efforts, thousands got through each year

Stream of immigrants: Calais has been a bottleneck for would-be illegal immigrants to the UK for years

He said: ‘The quickest, most radical
and easiest solution would be simply to shift the border from Calais to
Dover and Folkstone. and then the problem wouldn’t be handled in France
but Britain.’

On Friday, Interior Minister Mr Valls said he sympathised with Calais’ plight.

He criticised the ‘impasse’ in communication between British border authorities and their French counterparts in the English Channel port, and invited the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to visit the area to see the pressure on French border guards.

The comments came days after French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (pictured) called on Britain to change its immigration policy because of the pressure the port is under

Speaking at the port, Mr Valls said: ‘We need full and complete cooperation between all parties.

‘We will also, no doubt, need to flesh out and renegotiate certain agreements, in order to reinforce France’s cooperation with Britain and Europe.’

‘Our British friends must realise the burden, the weight, which is on France.’

The Home Office said the UK already has staff in France who are tasked with aiding their French colleagues in the battle to stop immigrants travelling illegally.

The Sangatte camp, which was previously used to accommodate immigrants attempting to head to Britain, was closed in 2002 after riots.

Under a deal set up concerning the camp’s operation, Britain pays a contribution towards the policing of the migrant problem in Calais.

But the closure of Sangatte failed to stop migrants coming to Calais. According to French news wire service AFP up to 500 undocumented migrants currently live in semi-permanent camps in the port town.

Last week the House of Commons public
accounts committee blamed staff shortages in the Border Force for
failures in checking lorries for stowaways.

In turn, the Force insists that it is stopping thousands of people every year from illegally entering Britain from France.

SCRAMBLING FOR HOT FOOD AND CLOTHES: MIGRANT CAMPS OF CALAIS

Calais became the focal point of cross-Channel immigration in the early 2000s when thousands of migrants used the Red Cross refugee camp at nearby Sangatte as a staging post on the journey to Britain.

It was finally shut down in 2002 by the then Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, but there have been rumours that a similar facility is being built.

This has been firmly denied by Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart who insists that a health centre is solely being offered to migrants sleeping rough in freezing winter temperatures.

Victory: Sustained by the thought of a better life in Britain, migrants live in ramshackle camps around the port

Ms Bouchart has blamed Britain's benefits culture for attracting so many migrants to Calais, from where they hope to hitch a ride on lorry, bus, car or ferry.

These migrants live on the outskirts of the town, thousands of them squashed sleeping in ramshackle camps where tents are patched up with bin-liners and people swarm for the hot food provided by volunteers each evening.

Sustained only by the thought of the benefits and freedom they hope to be given in Britain, they come from Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Somalia, among many other foreign countries, and fill their water bottles from taps and queue at food vans for hours.

Waiting: Asylum seekers and migrants from countries include Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan head to Calais

The 'plague' of makeshift camps, as Ms Bouchart described it, is 'tarnishing the town's image', and keeps around 300 French volunteers busy round the clock handing out food, clothing and other essentials needed by the poverty-stricken refugees.

The charity SALAM, which staffs the camps, says that the migrants are mostly young men who hope to make it across the Channel and claim asylum in Britain.

Sometimes the camps are destroyed - in 2009 Sarkozy ordered the closure of the notorious Jungle camp - but the desperate migrants simply set up somewhere else.